Underwriting Intern
ParetoHealth is a health insurance captive manager, one of the largest in this niche field with around 300-500 employees. It is based in Philadelphia and I was placed in the underwriting department, corresponding with my skillset as a Risk Management and Insurance major. As an underwriting intern, I spent my ten weeks in the program learning about how ParetoHealth signs new members to their self-insurance captives, which is primarily what the underwriting department is responsible for. I learned how this department evaluates the risk level associated with prospective captive members based on the demographics of the employer’s employees and their claims history. I learned how underwriting works with the sales and nursing departments to find additional information to use in the risk evaluation process, as well as how all the information is used to quote a new premium for the group seeking to join the captive. I undertook several projects throughout this process listed as follows:
- Census Organization. Formatting rosters of employees to match the format the underwriting application requires. I completed roughly ten of these successfully.
- Plan Design Entry. Outlining the plan types and terms the employer currently offered to its employees, as well as any changes the employer would like to make to these plans when they enter the captive. I completed roughly ten of these to my manager’s approval.
- Blending/Risk Assessment: Using cost projections produced by the underwriting app to quote a premium, taking into account the perceived credibility of one projection (based on claims experience) versus another (based on employee demographics). I did this for about five cases and discussed my thinking with my manager, who generally approved of my decisions.
- Final Project: Completing all of the aforementioned processes for one simulated case and defending my process and decision-making to my supervisors and ParetoHealth’s Chief Underwriting Officer. I was able to sell the group after quoting their premium and negotiating. I received a 91% on the overall project.
This internship helped me understand what the underwriting process actually looks like rather than simply what it is supposed to accomplish. I learned in my Managing Human Capital Risk class about what underwriting is, but had no way of visualizing how underwriting is actually done until engaging in it myself. I also built on my knowledge of the insurance industry overall, providing greater context to my Introduction to Risk Management Course. I didn’t understand captives or self-insurance beyond the surface-level knowledge I could demonstrate on a test, but after ParetoHealth’s first week spent introducing the interns to the industry and their place in it, I feel confident enough to explain it to other people in a way I wasn’t previously able to.